# Value of cognitive models

> IB Psychology · IB Psychology 2027 First Assessment
> Source: https://www.owlsprep.com/study/ib-psychology-lc-value-of-cognitive-models/

The value of one or more cognitive models in understanding one or more cognitive processes.

## Learning objectives

- The value of one or more cognitive models in understanding one or more cognitive processes.

## Core concept

A cognitive model is a simplified representation of an unobservable mental process, and its value is that it makes predictions experiments can test. The multi-store model pictures memory as sensory, short-term and long-term stores; its value shows when experiments confirm its predictions — for example that short- and long-term memory behave as separate stores. The working-memory model refines this by splitting short-term memory into components, and it too earns its keep by predicting specific, testable interference effects.

## Key studies

IB Psychology answers must be supported by named studies. Learn these to cite as evidence:

**Glanzer and Cunitz (1966)** — A delay-filling task removed the recency effect but left the primacy effect intact in serial recall. — *Confirms a prediction of the multi-store model — recency (short-term store) and primacy (long-term store) are dissociable — demonstrating the model's explanatory value.*

**Conrad and Hull (1964)** — Phonologically similar letters were harder to recall in order even when presented visually, indicating short-term memory codes acoustically. — *Supports a distinct short-term store with its own code — evidence the model predicts and that later refines it into working memory.*

## Evaluation (AO3)

**Strength — testable and productive** — Each model makes specific predictions (serial-position, coding, dual-task interference) that experiments can confirm or refute, which is exactly what gives a model scientific value.

**Limitation — simplification** — Models abstract away messy reality and lean on lab tasks and brain-damage cases, so they capture memory's structure better than everyday, meaningful remembering.

## Scope

> **note**
>
> The value of memory models for understanding a cognitive process is the focus. The model bodies are COG_4; cognitive load, which rests on working-memory capacity, is COG_3; the dual-processing model of thinking is COG_6.

## Common pitfalls

- **Wrong:** Using a model of memory to answer a 'thinking and decision-making' question (or vice versa).
  - Why it fails: A frequently penalised misconception in IB Psychology exams.
  - Correct: Match the model to the process being asked about — memory models (multi-store, working memory) explain how information is stored; thinking-and-decision questions want the dual-processing model.

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